


Desert, Snow, and Sky

by chas723



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, fluff to ease our angst, jedi academy AU, young reylo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-12 10:23:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5662828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chas723/pseuds/chas723
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snow.<br/>Her fierce, desert-colored eyes, matched only by his equally headstrong midnight-shade stare.<br/>Mutual irritation flaring on their cheeks. Angry huffs flowering into white steam. </p><p>And, eventually, a spark.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Encounter

 

>  
> 
> Snow.  
>  Her fierce, desert-colored eyes, matched only by his equally headstrong midnight-shade stare.  
>  Mutual irritation flaring on their cheeks. Angry huffs flowering into white steam.
> 
> And, eventually, a spark.
> 
>  

 

Rey fluttered beneath her white sheets. The posts of her bunk bed let out a concerned sigh. _Go to sleep, Rey,_ they seemed to groan. The voice, in her head, sounded oddly like Master Luke’s.

 

\--

 

Earlier that evening, Master Luke had ushered her into the dormitory, its wide wooden walls carefully lined with cozy bunk beds. An energetic flurry of kids swept her into the center, and she was greeted, or presented with, a ceremonious briefing of everyone and everything, often obligatory for new kids. One by one, names rolled off into the circle, _That was Skylen, and this was Melodia. Ligel had come from this system, Io and Ava were cousins--oh, and Io liked Ligel. (No, she didn't--and sent a pillow flying full-Force into the speaker's face as proof. She justified it as training). Arae and Keida were twins,_ and so on.

 

 _“And Ben. . .”_ a soft voice began.

 

 _“Ben’s a little . . .”_ another picked up.

 

 _“A little . . ._ off,” someone completed.

 

 _“. . . Lives up to his name! Solo, you know?”_ a light voice broke in with a good-hearted pat on Rey's back, rousing a splatter of giggles from the crowd. Before long, the eldest of the Jedi-in-training, Arided, was showing Rey to her bunk.

 

Rey shuffled what little possessions she had carried across the galaxy onto a short shelf jutting out at the foot-side of the bed. _It wasn’t much, really_. Overall, she had been more than happy to leave her scavenging career behind in the desert dunes.

 

 _Jakku,_ she reminisced, in colors, _t_ _he_ _brick-orange of the endless dunes--and like a canopy overhead, a cloudless blue sky_ ; _The sky--_ a small part of her throat twisted into a knot. She remembered the tiny footprints she would make in the sand as she padded out of her tent. Her eyes raked the skies for a--a _spaceship_ . _A spaceship,_ she whispered, _please._ She craned her neck up to the jet-black midnight, her knees digging into the coarse sand. She had as much success as a farmer would have had pleading the desert sky for rain. As if to tease her, a soft tear rolled down her grime-caked cheeks and landed in the sand.

 

\--

 

Rey shot up, throwing of her sheets. In the dark, she began running her hands across the side wall, searching by touch for that shelf at the other edge. _Hold on,_  she sparked with a small, mischievous grin. She closed her eyes, and in the pitch black underneath her eyelids, she reached in, softly, quietly, calmly, deeper, deeper inside, and touched the light at her center. Gently, she reached out with her mind, with the Force, and felt it nudge the cloth bag on top of the shelf. It landed in a soft _thump_ on her lap. She untangled the twine holding it closed, and reached in until she felt the cool touch of metal kiss her fingertips.

 

She traced her fingers over the familiar shapes and edges. It was a little model of what small scrapes of memory she could piece together from the day her family left. A tiny model of the spaceship she remembered drifting away. Too young for cantinas and too shy for conversation, she had filled her breaks from scavenging by fiddling with spare bolts and shards.

 

She softly whisked the Force to hug the underbelly of her model ship. In her mind, she reached for the blast of wind that had beat against her face as the spaceship propelled itself away from the dunes of _Jakku_ . A soft breeze _whooshed_ under the model ship. Her heart soared, and with it the ship--as laughter rang inside, the model _spun_ and _dove_ and _whirled_ across the room. Rey padded across the wooden hall, nudging the door open, and tiptoed down the stairs, careful not to wake her Master.

 

She wanted to-- _to feel the stars touch her cheek again_. She found the heavy cloth draped over the entrance. _To float in this new quiet, this new calm._ Her model ship twirled happily overhead. _To be alone for a just awhile, to search for her place in this new universal balance Master Luke had lead her see._ She pushed open the drapes and stepped onto the--

 

It was _snowing._

 

She sprinted into the heart of the tall winter bushes and white flurries, snowflakes braiding her desert-straw hair and kissing her cheeks, her hand running through the swaying brown grass--

 

 _“Holy F-!”_ a yelp jolted out of her (she meant “Force”). Something had _squirmed_ under her foot! Simultaneously, with a roar, a shower of pebbles rained from overhead, two or three _clunking_ on Rey’s head, and a towering black shadow surged up from the grass as it twisted and thrashed--

 

In her defense of what happened next, she had panicked. The _best she could do_ was send her metal model ship flying in the shadow’s direction--naturally! In further justification, she had also just been stoned out of nowhere. (Well, showered by stones. _Pebbles_. Same thing.)

 

“ _For FORCE’S sake!”_ the shadow cried out in the voice of a--a _boy?_

 

 

Slightly reassured, and more than glad not to have had encountered a nightmarish snow-creature, Rey treaded closer.

 

In the moonlight reflected by the snow, now falling like feathers, was a boy, covered in a deep navy cloak, right hand massaging his head, left hand held mid-air; her tiny model ship stayed hovering where his fingers were pointed.

 

She shot her head up to match his height. Her fierce desert-colored glare met his equally headstrong midnight-shade eyes.  Their mutual irritation flared onto their cheeks from their chests and flowered into the air in white clouds of angry huffs.

 

 _“Who’re_ you?” they growled simultaneously, each nursing their injuries with their palms.

 

 _Oh, Rey had a feeling she knew_ exactly _who this was._ Rey had a _bad_ feeling about this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Snowfights! Young Reylo! Jedi-Hogwarts! All aboard the fluff train. (:
> 
> I hope you enjoy--feedback and comments appreciated and welcome! (Other than on the liberal use of exclamation marks. How else could I express the Reylo excitement?!)


	2. Entrancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their laughter and banter tinkled through the winter morning sky.

 

 

> Soft silence padded the air in between them as they each pushed up from the snow and dusted off their knees.
> 
> “I’m Rey--by the way.” She realized she had not yet introduced her name, for she had felt his at first sight.
> 
> “I know,” he said, with a smile--soft, but with an unmistakable hint of roguishness.

 

“What was the _asteroid_ shower for?” yelped Rey. She could feel purple bruises already blooming.

 

“Well, it wasn’t exactly a _shower_ until your unidentified metal ship decided to make it one,” puffed Ben.  It was now less out of anger, and more out of pain. “I _had_ them floating--more or less.” His brows scrunched.

 

“But _why?_ ” Rey’s eyes widened. She was genuinely curious. _Only a madman_ _would be out here in the middle of the night,_ Rey thought. At least, until she remembered where exactly _she_ was standing.

 

She took a snowy step into the small clearing.

 

“I was _training_ ,” he insisted, rearranged his flowing hood to give his curls two swift shuffles. In his unflustered countenance, it was as if daybreak pebble-training sessions in the snow were nothing out of the ordinary. His nonchalance almost had Rey thinking the same.

 

“Is there anything that _isn’t_ training around here?” Rey laughed, half out of disbelief and half out of wonder. Events earlier that evening had proven that Force-pillow fighting also counted as training--at least, according to Ava.

 

“Everything _is_ training,” the boy explained, white steam blooming from his lips as he let out a deep sigh. “Because everything _is_ the Force.” He shuffled the cape of his cloak and began to lower himself back down to the ground.

 

“Really?” Rey posed, not because she didn’t _believe it_ \--Master Luke had told her so many times over on her journey here. Besides, in her heart, she knew it to be true. It was more out of incredulity; it was strange to hear a boy (however tall) explain the same so--so _naturally_.

 

The guard Ben had put up in the face of this stranger’s intrusion that had been stiffening his glance softened at little as he met her inquisitive stare, almost shimmering with curiosity. _Like desert sun on sand dunes_ , he noticed suddenly.

 

In the place of a reply, Rey saw the boy give his curls two swift shuffles again under his hood, then gently close his eyes. Concentration drew a groove between his furrowed brows, and she could feel the slightest vibration in the energy encompassing them. He inhaled sharply, then let out the air, slowly, softly--

 

White steam blooming at his lips seemed to turn into a wind that encircled them. It wove through the white-topped meadow, bringing it to a collective sway, shaking snow off and sending it swirling in spirals.

 

 _We’re on feathers,_ Rey imagined, _or a cloud_ ; sparkling snowflakes sprayed the moonlight into her eyes, and they shined with wonder and awe and _joy_ as she stretched her fingers out--

 

She had to shove away the straw-colored ponytail fervently whipping her cheeks. Her eyes, consequently, landed on the boy sitting in front of her, his hood and curls whipped back but his eyes closed so _softly_  that the stark contrast hit her. All wariness and irritation she had found just moments before had gone; instead, Rey saw _ease_. Comfort. Peace. As if he could sense the soft tap of her gaze on his cheek, his eyes fluttered open.

 

In that one, precise second, their chests were jolted into a shock by one current of energy. His world collided with hers as the desert in her eyes met the galaxy in his.

 

Of course, in the following, precise second, the boy’s concentration all but shattered and the two were ceremoniously showered with snow.

 

\--

 

“What’re you up to out here, my little padawans?” Arided’s energetic voice boomed into the frosty morning.

 

With a _thunk_ , the smallish boulder Rey and Ben had been balancing in between them plopped to the ground. The snow that had settled in a neat pile at the top showered Rey’s knees as the rock rolled over slightly to her side.

 

“I win!” exclaimed Rey, beaming from eye-to-eye. “I _win_ , Solo! Take _that_!” Popping up from the ground, she shuffled into the tiniest dance, snow flying every which way at her heels.

 

“Hey, _luck_ \--pure luck!” the boy quietly teased. His cheeks, however, were lit up with a hint of a smile.

 

“In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck,” Rey and Arided said in one voice. It did not take long to pick up Master Luke’s sayings.  

 

Chuckling, Arided turned her attention to the two of them, pants damp from snow and hair tussled almost impressively by wind.

 

“You kids out here all night?” she asked, the incredulity (and hilarity) of the picture dawning on her by the moment.

 

“We were--” Rey stammered.

 

“Training,” the boy completed.

 

“Yes! _Training_ . We were training.” Rey said, surprised, but rolling with it.  She looked up to show Arided her smile, passing just a hint of a side-glance to Solo. _Nice one_ , she told him with her mind. _I know_ , he chuckled, sending a mischievous poke back through the Force.

 

“Training?” Arided chimed with a jolly bellow. “All morning? In the snow? Alone?”

 

“Not alone,” Rey countered. “Together--see?” She turned her smile to the boy, as if to demonstrate. His head ducked under his hood, and he began fervently shuffling his curls, but Rey could swear she caught the slightest hue of pink on his cheeks.

 

“Alright, my little masters. Come up ‘n have breakfast. Luke’s waiting for ‘ya.” Arided grinned as she turned around and headed back up to the house in wide strides.

 

Soft silence padded the air in between them as they each pushed up from the snow and dusted off their knees.

 

“I’m Rey--by the way.” She realized she had not yet introduced her name, for she had felt his at first sight.

  
“I know,” he said, with a smile--soft, but with an unmistakable hint of roguishness. He slowly started his track back to the house. Rey soon chased after him, throwing his cloak over his head and eyes. Their laughter and banter tinkled through the winter morning sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thanks so much for reading! (: I hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Happy Monday, everyone. Cheers!


End file.
